The Faith-Rest Life: Learning to Trust and Rest in God

The More Things Change, the More They Remain the Same

Most people are familiar with the truism, “The more things change the more they remain the same.” This saying can be defined simply as, “Many facets of life seem to have a way of reoccurring.” In a more sophisticated manner, it means, “Turbulent changes do not affect reality on a deeper level other than to cement the status quo.”

The expression first appeared in print in the year 1849 and is attributed to the French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr.

The idea that Alphonse Karr was trying to convey was simple. In life, many things remain consistent even as various changes do occur.

When we move into a new house, our surroundings may have changed. The monthly water and power bills, however, still arrive in the mail right on time.

A business may relocate to a new office space only to find that its computers still have a way of crashing at the most inconvenient of times.

Spiritually minded people recognize that this principle shares a commonality with the Biblical Maxim, “There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

There is a “constancy” associated with day-to-day living.

Many aspects of life do indeed re-occur, even as changes seem to be going on all around us.

History does indeed have a way of “repeating itself.” This can occur within many different periods of time and formats.

This principle of history repeating itself is also explored in God’s ordering of prophetic history, where earlier biblical events and patterns are shown as recurring in later periods.

From the Age of the Law to the Church Age

Admittedly, the greatest period of change within Holy Scripture is the transitional time after the Crucifixion. God had set Israel aside and began to speak to the world through the followers of His Son Jesus Christ, now commonly referred to as the Church.

The Dispensational Age of the Law was now complete, as Jesus had uniquely fulfilled the requirements of the Law.

The Law had been given in part to show man the futility of changing his heart from the “outside in.” With the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34) and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, man would now be changed “from the inside out.”

The Law had largely served as a “schoolmaster” (Galatians 3:24) to reveal to man his utter need of a Savior.

After the initiation of the Church Age, mankind would no longer need to approach God in the same manner as in the Old Testament. The veil of the Temple had been rent (Matthew 27:51):

During the Dispensation of the Law, God spoke to the world through the Jewish people. In the Church Age, He would speak through a different assembly of people (Matthew 21:43).

This new group of God’s representatives consisted predominantly of Gentiles, believers who would be known as the Church, or Bride of Christ (Matthew 21:43).

Men would no longer be required to appear in Jerusalem 3 times per year during the Feast days of Unleavened Bread/Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles (Exodus 34:23).

Jesus Christ and the Perfect Sacrifice

Animal sacrifices were also no longer necessary. Jesus’ death on the Cross was the perfect substitutionary atonement for all of mankind’s sins: “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many…” (Hebrews 9:28), and “Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin” (Hebrews 10:18).

The significance of Christ as the perfect sacrifice is explored further in The Examination of the Passover Lamb, which examines how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament requirements of the sacrificial lamb.

Neither was there any need for a Priestly go-between, as believers were now considered to be themselves, “a Royal Priesthood” (I Peter 2:9, Revelation 1:6).

Although the Law was still beneficial for instruction in righteous holy living (Romans 15:4, II Timothy 3:16), with the initiation of the New Covenant, the Old Covenant of the Law was now dead:

“In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:13).

The Faith-Rest Life

The outward religious format changed greatly from the Old Testament to the New Testament. New Testament believers would also have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4). However, God’s modus operandi for maturing believers in the faith had not changed one iota in the new Church Age.

In the Old Testament, God provided the Hebrew people with freedom from slavery in Egypt through 10 major Judgments upon the Egyptians. He then brought them into the Wilderness to test and mature them in their faith. They were to learn to acknowledge and rest in His goodness.

God’s Word reveals to us that time after time the Hebrew people failed to trust in God and in His Promises to supply all their needs in their journey through the Wilderness.

They had witnessed God provide for their salvation from slavery in Egypt. Even so, they refused to fully trust in His ability to provide for the day-to-day needs of their lives.

Rather than rest in His promises, the Hebrew people chose instead to constantly complain to God, thereby dishonoring Him.

Trusting God for Our Daily Needs

Just as the Hebrew people had been delivered from slavery to the Egyptians, so too has the reborn Christian been delivered from the slave market of sin.

Both groups had first trusted in God for the big thing in life: their salvation. They were now to trust in God for the little things in life: their daily needs.

Like the Old Testament Hebrews, believers in New Testament times are also given numerous Promises from God that He will care for them in this life here on Earth, including:

“Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” Matthew 28:20

“Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is

cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we wear drink?

or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

For after all these things do the Gentiles seek: for your heavenly Father knoweth that

ye have need of these things.

But seek ye first the kingdom of god, and his righteousness: and all these things shall

be added unto you.” Matthew 6:30-33

“My God shall supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 4:19

This confidence in God’s provision is closely related to the principle discussed in You Never Know: while believers cannot know what the future holds, they can trust that the LORD will accompany, guide, and provide for them throughout their journey.

Learning From Israel in the Wilderness

In his first letter to the Church at Corinth, Paul admonishes the New Testament believers to learn a lesson from the behavior of the Hebrew people:

“But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in

the wilderness.

Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things,

as they also lusted.” I Corinthians 10:5,6

Paul then goes on to write:

“Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of

the destroyer.

Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for

our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” I Corinthians 10: 10,11

Resting in God’s Promises

The writer in the Book of Hebrews reminds New Testament believers that God’s way of maturing believers had not changed. After experiencing salvation, the believer was to “rest in God’s Promises” to supply all their needs. They were also to acknowledge that God has control over the events of their lives:

“There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works,

as God did from his.

Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest lest any man fall after the same

example of unbelief.” Hebrews 4:9-11

The fact that God has control over the events of our lives is fundamental to the faith-rest life. Rest becomes possible when the believer recognizes that the events of life are not ultimately governed by chance or coincidence.

God Is Not Bound by Time

The believer is also to recognize that the reality in which God exists is not the same as that experienced by mankind. God is not bound by time.

God had indeed already answered the believer’s prayers from the moment of Creation. By faith, we are to honor Him by resting in this fact:

“For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if

they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the

world.” Hebrews 4:3

The distinction between man’s limited perspective and God’s perspective outside the limitations of time is considered more fully in You Never Know.

Trusting God When There Is No Human Solution

God led the Hebrew people through the Wilderness to places where there was no human solution to their problems. In the same way, God brings Church Age believers to places where there is no apparent human answer to their dilemmas.

Scripture admonishes the Church Age believer to not repeat the thankless behavior of the Hebrew people in the Wilderness:

“…Today if ye will hear His voice,

Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the

Wilderness:

When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works fourty years.

Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err

in their heart; and they have not known my ways.

So I swear in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in

departing from the living God.

But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be

hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” Hebrews 3:7-13

Thankfulness and the Faith-Rest Life

When a Christian is living his or her life with a conspicuous absence of joy, or constantly exhibiting an attitude that is anything but thankful (I Thessalonians 5:18), it is evidence that they are living a life that is not truly “resting in the Lord.” That they are in fact in their own way, “murmuring against the Lord”, just as the Hebrews of Old Testament times had done.

New Testament believers would do well to recognize the importance God places upon “entering into His rest.” This is stressed both in the Book of Hebrews and in Paul’s 1st letter to the Church at Corinth.

New Testament believers are still being “perfected in the faith” in the same manner as Old Testament believers had been. This occurs through the mechanics of the faith/rest life.

God’s Ways Remain the Same

In conclusion, much of the religious format practiced in Old Testament times is no longer in effect in the Church Age. However, the essential ways of God in maturing believers have not changed at all.

Though the outward religious structure and organization is quite different in appearance, God’s methodology for the “perfecting of the saints” remains the same. This of course gives credence to the notion, “That the more things change, the more they do indeed remain the same!”

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Hebrews 13:8

Related Studies from Paradigms Tossed

Continue exploring faith, spiritual growth, God’s promises, and the unchanging principles found throughout Scripture through these related studies:

When History Should Not “Repeat Itself” — Paul’s Thorn in the Flesh
This study compares Moses and Paul and examines how God used difficult circumstances to keep Paul humble and accomplish His purposes in the believer’s life.

The Promises of God: Finding Certainty in an Uncertain World
Explore the promises God gives His people and why learning to rest in those promises is essential to a believer’s relationship with Him.

The Weightier Matters of the Law: Judgment, Mercy, and Faith
This study examines Jesus’ teaching about judgment, mercy, and faith and considers how these principles provide a framework for the believer’s daily walk with God.

Order Out of Chaos: How God Restores Order in a Broken World
Explore how God continues working toward His purposes even when human rebellion, suffering, and disorder seem to dominate circumstances.

The Pursuit of Happiness vs. Pleasing God: A Biblical Perspective
This study considers the difference between pursuing temporary personal happiness and living according to God’s purposes for the believer.